Haas hopes for 2015 F1 entry

Gene Haas is waiting to know if he will be let onto the F1 grid next year.

Actually, the FIA’s decision about potential twelfth or thirteenth teams for the 2015 pitlane was scheduled for the end of last week. But the governing body, having reportedly analysed in detail applications from Californian Nascar team co-owner Gene Haas and Colin Kolles respectively, ultimately postponed its decision.

Auto Motor und Sport correspondent Michael Schmidt said the delay is because F1’s commercial rights holders, headed by chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, are yet to fully analyse the prospective new teams’ projects. “Only when Ecclestone gives his approval will the applications be accepted,” he said. It is here that hopes may be dashed, after Ecclestone said the likelihood of Haas securing a 2015 entry is “most unlikely”. “He (Ecclestone) doesn’t think we will get the license, so my chances probably aren’t that great of a shot,” Haas said late in January. But since then, 61-year-old Haas – who owns the successful machine tool manufacturer CNC and also the Wind Shear wind tunnel – has met in Paris to discuss his project with FIA officials.

Haas said the FIA wanted to know “What we wanted to accomplish, how we will pay for it and what our logistics are to do it”. The governing body then “told us last Friday that the (final) decision will only come later on”, Haas is quoted as saying by Speed Week. “I think they take the information, evaluate it, make their recommendations and the process goes on. “They didn’t give us an exact date, but hopefully it will be in a week or two,” he added.